In case you didn’t know about this change, here is a flyer to inform you.

This is from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart – Democalypse 2012 – National Geogaffe-ic – Romney Abroad.

Video Link in case the above video does not play.

I guess I am not the only Jew who can see ridiculous anti-Palestinian prejudice when I see it.

I couldn’t help pass this one on as suggested by RichardH. In the article That’s Mitticulous!, Matt Miller coins a term that is sure to go viral almost instantaneously.

Mitticulous means that what Romney does is thoroughly ridiculous yet in its own way very precise — that is to say, Romney is literally “meticulous” in his inanity.

If the media could take a doctored film clip and replay it repeatedly to prove that Howard Dean was an angry man, surely we can use this new word over and over again to show what Mitt Romney really is.

I had to laugh when I saw this political ad from Mitt Romney.

I guess Romney is going after the votes of the people who fell off the turnip truck yesterday. Does he know something we don’t about his inability to get enough votes from people born before 2009?

Ties to Hezbollah Remain Murky in “Terror Plots” Targeting Israel is another article from Gareth Porter posted on TruthOut.

Even if the US. national security state does not wish to acknowledge that the Burgas bombing fits the profile of an al-Qaeda terrorist operation rather than Hezbollah, there is no excuse for the US news media failure to report that inconvenient truth.

I originally posted the interview with Gareth Porter in the post The Porter Report: Israel, the Bulgaria Bombings and Iran.

Then I posted a different point of view in the post Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat. This latest article from Gareth Porter seems to be casting doubt on the opposing post.

It is still up to the reader to figure out where the truth lies (an interesting juxtaposition of words).  Can anyone provide a third opinion from a reputable source, whatever that means?

From The New York Times comes the story Regulator Rebuffs Obama on Plan to Ease Housing Debt.

 The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it had concluded after months of study that up to half a million homeowners could benefit from such a program, and that taxpayers might save $1 billion because aid recipients would be more likely to continue making mortgage payments.

But the agency’s acting director, Edward J. DeMarco, said the benefits most likely would be much smaller — too small in his judgment to offset potential costs, including the risk that some borrowers would stop making payments in pursuit of a better deal.

Since Edward J. DeMarco is a Bush appointee, can we be allowed to pin the blame for this problem on George Bush?  I know it is late into the Obama administration, but the Bush deviltry seems to have long lasting effects.

The Journal of Accountancy has the article False internet rumors about “real estate transaction tax” worry taxpayers.

The National Association of Realtors has some tax advice for users of the internet: Don’t believe everything you read.

In anticipation that I will hear from some people about this false rumor, I have decided to publish this blog post with a link to the actual article.  You have to read the article for all the details, but here is the example the article mentions.

Example: A married couple with MAGI of $325,000 purchased a home in California many years ago for $350,000 and sold it this year for $900,000, realizing a gain of $550,000. After excluding $500,000 gain under Sec. 121, they are left with $50,000 investment income (assume they have no other investment income). Since their AGI is $75,000 over the tax’s threshold amount for married taxpayers filing jointly, the lesser amount of $50,000 would be subject to taxation. At 3.8% they would owe $1,900.

So first, this couple had a $325,000 modified adjusted gross income and then they sold a house for a gain of $550,000.  Their tax on the real estate transaction of $1,900 amounted to 0.35% of their real estate gain.  Moreover, they had $325,000 modified adjusted gross income beyond the real estate gain to cover the $1,900 tax.  I don’t think they will have to choose between paying their taxes and eating their next meal over a tax bill of this size.

The Nation Of Change has the story Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat.

After a decade in which al Qaeda dominated the world stage, the global terror threat from Iran has escalated sharply, generating a swarm of recent plots from Delhi to Mombasa to Washington and signaling an aggressive new strategy, counterterror officials say.

I post this story as a counter to the previous post The Porter Report: Israel, the Bulgaria Bombings and Iran.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what parts, if any, you can believe of either story.  You get no points deducted if you cannot finish the exercise.

The above video is one of a series from The Real News on Israel Social TV.

The titles in this series are:

• The Judaizing of East Jerusalem
• The Inability To Get Public Housing
• Fruitful pressure
• Refusing to Enlist in Israel
• Israel and Women’s Disobedience
• Polluting Occupation

So far, I have only viewed the video shown above. When I saw it yesterday, I wasn’t sure that I needed to post this on the blog. After what I learned in order to post Mitt Romney sets off culture skirmish over Israel economy, I realized how necessary it was to make this post.

If Mitt Romney thinks that culture is the major factor in the disparity between Palestinian and Jewish lifestyles in Israel, perhaps he ought to look at more videos like these. In America, he may think that the 99% are not as rich as he because they lack his culture. What they lack is the culture of having a rich parent, a privileged lifestyle, and absolutely no conscience about who they rip off to amass their fortune.